Xi urges confidence in economy as premier calls for strong start to 2025

Jan 04, 2025

Happy New Year, and welcome back to What’s Happening in China, your weekly update on the latest news and developments from the country.

I hope you’ve had a great week and a smooth start to 2025.

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Through the Lens

A snowy winter day in a historic Beijing hutong.

In Focus

I. "Iron rice bowl" or "stable poverty"?

A record 3.4 million young Chinese flocked to the civil service exam this year, lured by the prospect of lifetime job security and perks including subsidised housing as an economic slowdown batters the private sector and youth unemployment remains high.
Applicant numbers, which surged by over 400,000 from last year and have tripled since 2014, reflect the huge demand for stability from disillusioned Gen Z Chinese and the lack of attractive options in the private sector even though local governments are struggling to pay wages due to a fiscal crisis.
Klaire, a master's student in Beijing, took the notoriously competitive exam in early December, studying for nine hours a day and spending 980 yuan ($134) on online tutoring.
She cited social prestige and stability as major factors why she is only applying for government or state-owned enterprise (SOE) jobs. Klaire has also seen colleagues get laid off during a previous tech internship.
"I only want to pass the exam and not worry about what happens next," said the 24-year-old, withholding her surname for privacy reasons.
"Despite personally knowing civil servants who haven't been paid for months, I still applied because I don't wish to make lots of money."
If she passes the exam, she will have a further interview as well as political background and physical checks, with the final outcome expected around April.
Layoffs are rare in China's civil service, earning it the "iron rice bowl" moniker, though individuals can be dismissed for disciplinary violations.
"The current leadership has no intent of reducing the size of public sector workers, who are the backbone of regime stability," said Alfred Wu, associate professor at National University of Singapore.
Most civil service openings have an age limit of 35 and offer subsidised housing and social insurance, a major attraction for graduates disillusioned by the paucity of private sector job opportunities.
[…]
However, rare interviews with ten public sector employees across four Chinese provinces paint a different picture: widespread bonus reductions and pay cuts of up to 30% this year have prompted some to consider resigning, while local government austerity drives have led to sporadic staff cuts.
Some civil servants say they have been unpaid for months. Others survive on as little as 4,000 yuan ($550) monthly while supporting families and paying off loans. Many asked for anonymity to avoid retribution.
Despite these obvious woes, high nationwide youth unemployment has fed strong demand for civil service roles, which have surged from 2019's 14,500 to 39,700 this year.

Read: Chinese youth flock to civil service, but slow economy puts 'iron rice bowl' jobs at risk (Reuters)

II. What's a few percentage points among friends?

China’s 2024 claim that GDP growth was on track to meet high targets was impossible to reconcile with increasingly frantic efforts to prop up a flagging economy all year long. Collapsing property construction slowed growth to a crawl in 2022 and 2023, and in 2024 the spillover from real estate sidelined local government investment and consumption as well.
By our estimates, China’s GDP growth in 2024 improved modestly to around 2.4% to 2.8%, well below than official claims of nearly 5%. If it stimulates domestic demand with some urgency and ramps up debt, we think China could get to 3-4.5% growth in 2025, reaching the high end of that range only if everything falls in Beijing’s favor. But that is the very top of—or above—the potential growth ceiling until Beijing fixes long-festering structural problems.

Read: After the Fall: China’s Economy in 2025 (Rhodium Group)

Noahpinion

by Noah Smith
)

III. “My son has to stay here.”

They survived re-education camps in China’s western Xinjiang region. They were released from detention centers and psychiatric hospitals. They watched their loved ones disappear one by one and feared when it would be their turn.
Then they managed to get out of China and reached the soil of the United States, many by trekking through the brutal jungle in Panama known as the Darién Gap on their way to the U.S. southern border.
They are Hui Muslims, a state-recognized ethnic minority group in China, where the government is determined to crack down on Islam. As President-elect Donald J. Trump promises to build detention camps and enlist the military to carry out mass deportations, the future of this group of immigrants is precarious. Deportation could mean years in jail or labor camps.
[…]
After Mr. Trump won the election, Mr. Ma said, his phone rang almost nonstop for a week. The callers were anxious. They spoke little English, so they had limited access to official information.
Mr. Ma said he had invited a lawyer to the shelter to explain the importance of applying for political asylum. Most Chinese migrants entering the United States from the southern border are released on parole by immigration authorities. Then they can apply for asylum. Under the current protocols, the lawyer told them, once they had a pending case, they should be protected from deportation.
“It would be lying if anyone says they are not scared,” said Yan, the single mother. “Everyone is on edge.” She said she would accept being deported but would make the painful decision to have someone adopt her son, who has problems learning, if it meant he could stay in the United States.
“My son has to stay here,” she said. “Going back would mean no chance of survival for him.”

Read: Migrant Chinese Muslims in NYC Say They Now Fear Trump (The New York Times)

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Politics & Society

Xi Jinping signals growth is priority in speech acknowledging China’s strains (Financial Times)

Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed support for the country’s vulnerable elderly and youth in a new year address that acknowledged the strains on some of the 1.4bn-strong population.
Xi’s speech comes after his economic planners have for much of the past four years struggled to restore consumer confidence or address rising youth unemployment and slow wage growth.
In the televised speech on Tuesday evening the 71-year-old leader, speaking in front of a large motif of the Great Wall, said that issues of employment, income growth, elderly care, childcare, education and healthcare “are always on my mind”.
Xi said that a July meeting of the Chinese Communist party leadership had sounded a “clarion call for further comprehensive deepening of reform”.
“Enabling people to live happy lives is the top priority,” he said. “Every household hopes that children can receive good education, the elderly can have good care services, and young people can have more development opportunities.”
China’s economy, which is the world’s second biggest behind the US, recorded growth of 4.8 per cent in the first nine months of the year, trailing Beijing’s official target of about 5 per cent.

Full text of President Xi Jinping's 2025 New Year message (Qiushi Journal)

On New Year's eve, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered his 2025 New Year message through China Media Group and the Internet. The following is the full text of the message.

The contradictions of Xi Jinping (Financial Times)

The early part of The Red Emperor by Michael Sheridan has even a reader unschooled in psychoanalysis wondering about the sort of life-long imprint that trauma can inflict. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), a teenage Xi went through more than a dozen “struggle sessions”, which were violent public humiliations of people held to be “class enemies”. At some points he was also incarcerated, hungry and infested with fleas.
“One night a desperate Xi [escaped],” Sheridan writes. “He ran through the rainswept alleys of Beijing to his home. He banged on the door, hoping to get food and dry clothes. But his mother was so terrified for her own safety — and that of Jinping’s siblings — that she not only turned him away but reported his flight to the authorities.”
His mother did not act out of callousness, Sheridan explains. “These were the actions of an insider. Knowing that her house was watched, she also knew that punishment for helping her son would be certain. He fled into the rain, crying.”
This episode is one of several ordeals recounted in Sheridan’s excellent work, the most vivid and compelling biography of Xi published to date. A veteran journalist with extensive experience in Hong Kong and China, Sheridan acknowledges his debt to Howard Zhang, a former head of the BBC News Chinese Service, who acted as lead researcher on Chinese sources for the book.
While Sheridan’s book recounts the seminal chapters in Xi’s life and career, Kevin Rudd traces the transformation in China’s ideological worldview since he came to power in 2012. These shifts have turned much of Chinese politics, economics and foreign policy on its head, says Rudd in On Xi Jinping.
In a nutshell, Xi’s ideological beliefs could be described as “Marxist Nationalism”, argues Rudd, a former Australian prime minister, the current Australian ambassador to the US and a long-standing China expert.
In detail this means three big things. Xi has taken Chinese politics to the “Leninist left” by stressing centralisation in decision making. He has taken economics to the “Marxist left”, emphasising the role of state-owned enterprises and regulation. Lastly, foreign policy under Xi has moved to the “nationalist right”, making Beijing more confrontational and assertive.

Watch: Why Are China’s Youth Boycotting Pensions? (Bloomberg)

China’s pension system is in danger of running out of money in a decade. Now it faces a new threat: tens of millions of mostly young workers are refusing to pay into it.

Chinese officials urged not to ignore public opinion and criticism (SCMP)

Chinese cadres have been urged to properly manage public opinion online to respond to outcries and ensure social stability.
In a social media post on Friday, the publicity branch of the Communist Party in Zhejiang province said “an extreme minority” of officials had been ignoring views expressed online and were instead censoring criticism.
“Some cadres avoid solving problems in reality and rely on ‘control’ by cyberspace authorities,” the post said, warning that this would lead to more serious problems.
It also quoted Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s comments that “if we fail to govern the internet well, we will fail to ensure long-term governance,” to emphasise the importance of effective cyberspace regulation.
The post blamed bureaucracy and prejudice for ignoring complaints posted online and said some officials have an outdated mindset and only care about their own positions or the interests of their own department or region.
“Although these officials attach some importance to public opinion, they only focus on reports from mainstream media and ignore online discussion. Some even think that ‘it is just internet discussion, and it does not matter’,” it said.
The post warned that it will be too late if complaints are ignored until they attract media coverage.

More Chinese Couples Are Choosing to Live Apart. Is It Worth It? (Sixth Tone)

More couples in China are living in separate cities to balance careers and family goals. Women, particularly those with higher education degrees, are more likely to actively choose this arrangement. But such marriages often come with emotional strain, unequal gender roles, and a decreased desire to bear children.
These were among the key findings of a new study published recently in China Youth Studies, a domestic academic journal focusing on youth-related issues, by researchers from Xi’an Jiaotong University in the northwestern Shaanxi province.
“Commuter marriages” refer to couples living in separate cities to pursue individual career goals. As China’s population mobility accelerates, this arrangement has become increasingly common among urban youth. But the term originated in the West, particularly in the United States, where it described couples maintaining long-distance relationships due to professional commitments.

Her Abuse Was a National Story. Now Her Husband Is Going to Prison. (Sixth Tone)

He Zhongyang, whose violent abuse of his wife gained national attention in China after leaving her hospitalized with severe organ damage last year, was sentenced to 11 years in prison Friday.
In a Dec. 27 ruling, a court in southwestern China’s Sichuan province found He guilty of criminal abuse and intentional injury. In addition to prison, the judge ordered He to pay the victim, identified in court documents as Xie, approximately 380,000 yuan ($52,000) in compensation for her injuries and lost wages.

The Tibetan Government-in-Exile Has a New Strategy (ChinaFile)

The recent shift in exile rhetoric suggests a realization by the Tibetan leadership that a strategy based on critiques of China’s human rights record in Tibet was never going to work. Instead, the new approach replaces moral chastisement with a critique of China’s claim to Tibet. Unlike human rights criticisms, a challenge to its sovereignty addresses a core sensitivity for the Chinese government. Its primary objective on the Tibet issue in the last 40 years had nothing to do with rebutting criticisms of its record on human rights, which probably never represented more than background noise for Beijing. Instead, its primary objective has always been to get all governments to state that Tibet is part of China. It took China just short of a century to achieve that goal—it was only in October 2008 that the British government renounced its 1914 treaty-based recognition of Tibet as a distinct political entity, ending its position as the final nation in the world not to have acknowledged China’s sovereignty over Tibet.
The new exile strategy assumes that the Party-state’s concern about its sovereignty in Tibet is so acute that even the possibility of moves to weaken foreign recognition of its claim will lead it to accept a reasonable settlement with the exiles.

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No precursor to major earthquake in Ningxia, yet possibility of noticeable aftershocks in coming days remains: authority (Global Times)

As of 10 pm on Friday, a series of earthquakes in Yinchuan, the capital of Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, which began on Thursday morning and continued into the early hours of Friday, resulted in six minor injuries, with no fatalities or structural collapses, local officials said on Saturday, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.
They also said that the recent increase in earthquake activities in the region does not indicate the likelihood of a major earthquake, but they do not rule out the possibility of noticeable aftershocks occurring in the original earthquake area and nearby areas in the coming days.

Relief work underway in Ningxia after multiple quakes (China Daily)

The strength of structures, including houses and other infrastructures in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, is at Level 8, which means they can withstand earthquakes of around magnitude 6 on the Richter scale of quake power, according to a report on the website of Ningxia's earthquake agency on Friday.
Chinese authorities activated an emergency response in Ningxia after successive temblors of magnitude 4.8 and 4.6 jolted Yinchuan on Thursday.
A team has been dispatched to aid with local rescue and relief efforts in affected areas, the Ministry of Emergency Management announced on its website.

Zhengzhou the first city in China to ban cellphone use in schools (SCMP)

Zhengzhou, in central China, has banned the use of mobile phones in primary and secondary schools – the first legislature in the country to do so.
The city’s lawmakers on Friday passed a decision to strengthen restrictions on cellphone use by students, with the move taking immediate effect.
Schools are required to tightly restrict students from bringing phones onto campuses and “no phones should be brought into classrooms unless for teaching purposes”, according to the decision by the Standing Committee of the Zhengzhou People’s Congress.
“If students have to bring their phones to school, their parents or guardians should submit a written application to the school,” it says. “Student phones allowed on campus should be kept by the school administration.”
The ban applies to all primary, secondary and secondary vocational schools in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province.
Schools are also required to install “adequate” public phones on their campuses so that students can contact their parents if necessary.

Some in China fear a wider LGBTQ+ crackdown after transgender dancer Jin Xing’s shows canceled (CNN)

Transgender dancer Jin Xing’s ascent to the upper echelons of Chinese show business is extraordinary in a nation where it has become increasingly difficult for LGBTQ+ people to live openly.
The 57-year-old has been a transgender icon in China for years, admired by some of the country’s most marginalized as a rare example of both success and acceptance, even within officialdom.
But a recent series of sudden and unexplained cancelations by local authorities of appearances by her dance troupe has sparked fears Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s authoritarian drive is ensnaring the country’s most prominent openly transgender personality.

2024's Most Notable Censored Articles and Essays (Part 1) (China Digital Times)

The censored articles and essays from 2024 compiled below represent only a small fraction of the online content that disappears each day from the Chinese internet, either through targeted deletion by platform censors, or via deletion (sometimes under duress) by the individual who posted it. Between January 1 and December 13, 2024, CDT Chinese editors archived and added 357 new posts, essays, articles, and videos to our “404 Deleted Content Archive,” which now contains over 1,888 items in total. Although it is just the tip of the iceberg, CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” is an invaluable resource for preserving online Chinese discourse and for identifying topics that the Party-state deems “sensitive” and endeavors to suppress.

2024's Most Notable Censored Articles and Essays (Part 2) (China Digital Times)

In this Part 2 post about 2024’s most notable censored articles and essays from CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive,” some of the topics include a food-safety scandal about oil tanker-trucks transporting cooking oil, a proposed national Internet ID system, the illegal sale of corpses for use in medical procedures, indebted local governments selling off assets, stabbing attacks against Japanese nationals in China, a car ramming attack at a stadium in Zhuhai, and worries about a weak economy driven by high youth unemployment.

The Man Who Almost Changed China (Foreign Affairs)

More than four decades after the launch of the reform and opening-up project, China is now at another inflection point. Its economic growth during the reform era was extraordinary, and by 2010 it had become the second-largest economy in the world. That success has many causes, but one of the most important factors is that China in the era of reform and opening enjoyed a long peace; guided by the likes of Hu, it strove to craft amicable relations with the outside world and avoid confrontation, particularly with the United States.
But the other vision of political reform—Hu’s vision—is decidedly unfulfilled. The CCP remains entrenched in Beijing. The prospect of a political system with greater checks and balances seems distant. From Deng’s rule onward, the CCP leadership has taken full advantage of China’s continuous and rapid economic growth to boost its legitimacy and has taken credit for all of China’s economic successes. Legitimacy so defined, however, depends on continued strong performance; China’s rapid economic growth must last forever if the government is to enjoy the legitimacy that accompanies that economic record. The current slowing of the Chinese economy is much more than an economic issue. It represents a serious challenge to the Chinese state. In his time, Hu understood this problem, which is why he wanted China to embrace greater political reform and put mechanisms in place that would satisfy the demands and social, moral, and cultural aspirations of the Chinese people.
Those needs remain unaddressed, a deficit that has periodically inflamed tensions between the Chinese state and society, as well as between China and other countries. Hu saw this coming. Even as he sought to remake China in the world, he understood that the biggest challenges facing China come not from without but from within.

Hong Kong & Macao

Top Hong Kong stories 2024: 15 times HK made int'l news (HKFP)

Hong Kong made the news on several occasions in 2024 whether for passing new security legislation, censorship laws, or the mystery surrounding the deaths of several monkeys at a city-centre zoo.
HKFP rounds up 15 headline-making moments from the last 12 months.

HMPV levels remain low in HK amid mainland China outbreak (HKFP)

A leading epidemiologist has said that levels of human metapneumovirus (HMPV) remained low in Hong Kong amid an outbreak of the respiratory virus in mainland China.
David Hui, a professor of respiratory medicine at the Faculty of Medicine at Chinese University of Hong Kong, told TVB on Sunday that while HMPV infections had risen in mainland China, Hong Kong had not witnessed a similar trend.
As HMPV was not a new virus, having first been reported in 2001, Hui said that enhancing hygiene measures such as wearing face masks and washing hands frequently could help prevent a local outbreak.

China’s home-grown C919 plane touches down in Hong Kong on ‘historic’ flight (SCMP)

China’s home-grown C919 narrowbody passenger jet landed in Hong Kong on Wednesday morning, marking the aircraft’s first scheduled commercial flight outside the mainland, with the city’s transport minister saying it held “historic significance”.
Amid great fanfare, China Eastern Airlines’ flight MU721 left Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 8.20am on New Year’s Day and touched down in Hong Kong at 10.45am. The return flight, MU722, took off from Hong Kong International Airport at 1.04pm almost full with passengers. The service will be operate daily.
“The inaugural commercial flight of the C919 between Hong Kong and Shanghai has a very important historic significance for Hong Kong,” Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan said.

Hong Kong’s air passenger traffic soars to pre-pandemic levels over Christmas (SCMP)

Hong Kong’s air passenger traffic reached more than 180,000 people a day on average amid the Christmas period, a return to pre-pandemic levels, the transport minister has said, while promising to increase flight frequency.
Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan also said on Thursday the number of flights taking off and landing over a single day had peaked at about 1,150 over the festive season, which was close to the average figure before the Covid-19 pandemic.
“During the Christmas period in 2024, our average passenger traffic was more than 180,000 per day. On December 21, the single-day peak was 190,000. It has returned to pre-pandemic levels,” she told a radio programme.

2024 was Hong Kong's hottest on record, Observatory says (HKFP)

Hong Kong’s weather service said Friday that 2024 was the city’s hottest year since records began 140 years ago, mirroring a global trend of rising temperatures and extreme weather sparked by climate change.

Taiwan

Lai proposes talks with Beijing to ease tourism restrictions (Focus Taiwan)

President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has called China the "real barrier" to cross-strait exchanges and urged Beijing to hold talks with Taipei to ease tourism restrictions.
"The real barrier to cross-strait exchanges is actually China, not Taiwan," Lai said, referring to Beijing's restrictions on Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan, during a question and answer session at the Presidential Office on Wednesday following his New Year's Day address.
"If China is genuinely sincere, I suggest that the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association and the Association for Tourism Exchange across the Taiwan Straits begin negotiations [to ease those restrictions," Lai said.
The two associations were established by Taipei and Beijing, respectively, to facilitate coordination and negotiations between the two sides on tourism.

Full text of President Lai's 2025 New Year Day's address (Focus Taiwan)

President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) delivered his 2025 New Year's Day address Wednesday, his first since assuming the presidency on May 20.
In the speech, Lai highlighted the growing international recognition for Taiwan's democratic, technological and economic achievements, and underscored the need to stay committed to democracy while strengthening Taiwan's economic resilience.
He also called on people in the central and local governments, regardless of party affiliation, to work together for the benefit of the country.

Taiwan reports first Chinese ‘combat patrol’ of the New Year (The Straits Times)

Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Jan 2 that Chinese warplanes and warships had carried out the first “combat patrol” around the island of the New Year, after Taiwan President Lai Ching-te again expressed willingness to talk to Beijing.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, sends its military into the skies and waters near the island on an almost daily basis, and holds what Taiwan calls “joint combat readiness patrols” several times a month.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected 22 Chinese military aircraft, including J-16 fighter jets, carrying out a “joint combat readiness patrol” around Taiwan in conjunction with Chinese warships starting on the morning of Jan 2.v

Taiwan reportedly building hypersonic missiles that can hit north of Beijing (Taiwan News)

Taiwan is reportedly producing hypersonic missiles with a range that extends beyond Beijing and acquiring mobile missile vehicles from the Czech Republic to launch them.
To enhance Taiwan's deep strike capabilities, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology has mass-produced the Ching Tien (擎天) supersonic cruise missile, reportedly with a range of 1,200 to 2,000 km. To extend the range beyond 2,000 km, the NCSIST has reportedly been working on an upgraded version of the Ching Tien supersonic missile system, renamed the “Ching Tien hypersonic cruise missile,” per Liberty Times.

Taipei Court orders Ko Wen-je back to detention (Taiwan News)

The Taipei District Court ruled on Thursday that former Taipei Mayor and TPP Chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), along with three co-defendants, be placed under detention with restrictions on visitation in a contentious case involving the Core Pacific City development and the management of political donations.
The decision came after a third detention hearing, following two appeals filed by the Taipei District Prosecutors Office. These appeals were in response to earlier rulings that granted bail to the four defendants, despite the high bail amounts. Ko's bail was set at NT$70 million, one of the highest ever in the history of political cases.
In court, Ko criticized the judges' previous order restricting his contact with co-defendants and witnesses, calling it overly vague. He argued that if the prosecutors intended to prevent collusion, they should specify who he was prohibited from contacting. He also challenged the prosecutors, saying, "If you want to lock me up, just say it," as quoted by Liberty Times.

Ko Wen-je resigns as TPP chairman (Focus Taiwan)

Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has resigned as chairman of the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), and will be replaced on an acting basis by TPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), the party said Wednesday.
Ko, who is out on bail after being indicted on corruption charges, announced his resignation as chairman during an expanded meeting of the TPP's Central Committee, committee member Chiang Ho-shu (江和樹) told reporters.

U.S. stays largest debtor nation of Taiwan's banks for 37th straight quarter (Focus Taiwan)

The United States remained the largest debtor nation of banks in Taiwan for the 37th consecutive quarter at the end of the third quarter of 2024.
Data released by Taiwan's central bank over the weekend showed Taiwanese banks' exposure to the U.S. stood at US$181.99 billion at the end of September, up US$6.67 billion or 3.80 percent from a quarter earlier.

Carter's death stirs memories of US cutting ties with Taiwan (Taiwan News)

Former US President Jimmy Carter is a controversial figure in Taiwan having severed diplomatic ties with the country in favor of China and signing the Taiwan Relations Act.
The Carter Center announced on Sunday that the 39th president had died peacefully in his home in Plains Georgia at age 100, making him the longest-living president in US history. His passing stirs memories in Taiwan of the severance of diplomatic ties between Washington and Taipei, per CNA.
In 1999, Carter visited Taiwan for the first time at the invitation of the Institute for National Policy Research. After delivering a speech in Taipei, he fielded questions from the audience.
Former Taoyuan County Magistrate Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) raised her hand and commented that in 1978, Taiwan was on the verge of an important election and opposition parties had been preparing to participate. Lu said that Carter's announcement that year of severing diplomatic relations led to the suspension of the election and escalated into an incident in which many opposition leaders were arrested and handed prison sentences, hindering Taiwan's democratization.

Cabinet approves new Silicon Valley plan for southern Taiwan (Focus Taiwan)

The Executive Yuan on Thursday approved a plan to create Taiwan's own Silicon Valley in southern Taiwan.
The plan involves the development and linking of multiple science and technology industrial parks in Tainan, Chiayi, Kaohsiung and Pingtung and building them into an S-shaped semiconductor corridor, a policy priority envisioned by the government to form a technology industrial cluster in the south, and prepare Taiwan for the artificial intelligence (AI) era.

Taiwan launches ‘digital nomad’ visas in bid to confront talent shortage (SCMP)

Kicking off 2025, Taiwan is issuing six-month visas to foreign “digital nomads” to help plug talent shortages linked to falling birth rates.
The National Development Council in Taipei has announced the scheme amid a gradual shrinking of the workforce that has sparked a search for new talent sources to sustain the tech-centred, export-reliant economy.
Starting today, Taiwan, which has set a goal of attracting 400,000 foreign workers by 2032, will let what the government calls “foreign digital professionals” stay for half a year on nomad visas. As of the end of 2023, the latest year counted, 69,509 foreign professionals and 754,130 registered migrant workers lived in Taiwan.

MOFA searches for Taiwan man reportedly taken hostage in Southeast Asia (Focus Taiwan)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Thursday it is attempting to locate a Taiwanese traveler to Thailand reportedly being held for ransom by a criminal gang.
According to the Taoyuan police, the 27-year-old man, surnamed Hsieh (謝), last contacted his family on Dec. 25.
Hsieh asked his family for several tens of thousands of U.S. dollars, telling them he was being held for ransom and forced to commit telecommunications fraud, police said.
Based on phone data, Hsieh's last known location was in Myanmar, police added.

World

Asia

Philippines wrestles with how to face down China while policing 7,000 islands (Financial Times)

Two years of escalating confrontation in the South China Sea have persuaded the Philippines that going head-on against Beijing is not viable as it tries to police one of the world’s largest maritime territories.
Direct clashes with the Chinese coastguard — accused of behaving “like Vikings” — threaten to exhaust Manila’s limited resources, according to Philippine government officials. They said the country had to balance securing its western flank, where China is most active, with the need to safeguard the rest of its maritime interests across 7,000 islands where smuggling and piracy are perennial threats.
“We cannot go toe to toe with China,” said Jonathan Malaya, assistant director-general in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s National Security Council. “We are not a rising superpower like China who has enormous resources at their disposal, so we have to live with what we have.”
The government is now employing a mix of diplomacy, drones, new laws and new naval infrastructure to try to protect its maritime rights, said government officials.
The more measured approach is part of an effort to secure and effectively govern the waters, straits and coastline of the world’s second-largest archipelago. Since Marcos took office in June 2022, he has refocused national security from combating internal insurgents and crime to external defence.

Chinese Underwater Sea Glider Drone Caught By Fisherman In The Philippines (The War Zone)

Authorities in the Philippines are examining what appears to be a Chinese ocean glider-type uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) that a fisherman ‘caught’ earlier this week. At least three similar, if not identical, undersea drones were found in various locations around Indonesia between 2019 and 2020. The design looks to be one ostensibly intended for maritime research use, but it could also have military applications.
A fisherman recovered the UUV approximately six miles (nine kilometers) off the coast of the San Pascual municipality in Masbate, an island province in the Philippines that lies in the central section of the archipelago nation, on Dec. 30, 2024. The drone, which is said to be around six and a half feet (two meters) long, was turned over first to the Philippine National Police (PNP) and then to the Philippine Navy.

Chinese warships make port call in Vietnam after talks on joint patrols (SCMP)

A Chinese naval fleet made a port call in Vietnam days after the two nations held talks on joint maritime patrols, as they move closer on defence despite their long-standing disputes over the South China Sea.
The fleet – led by the Changsha, a destroyer, and amphibious warfare ship Jinggangshan – docked in Da Nang on Vietnam’s east coast on Saturday, according to a statement from the People’s Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command.
It said they were welcomed by Vietnamese navy officials and Chinese diplomats.
The port call came days after the two navies wrapped up a four-day meeting on joint patrols, in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. The annual talks focus on management of the Gulf of Tonkin, which is known in China as the Beibu Gulf.

China Conducts Naval Blockade Exercise in Miyako Strait; CCG Ships Near Senkaku Islands Given Stronger Weapons (The Japan News)

The Chinese navy and the China Coast Guard (CCG) in December jointly carried out activities similar to a naval blockade in the Miyako Strait located between the main island of Okinawa and Miyako Island. A heavily armed CCG fleet was also dispatched to areas near the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
This is the first confirmation of activities of either kind, according to multiple sources close to the government. The government is reportedly exercising increased caution, believing that China may be considering an expanded naval blockade area in the event of a Taiwan contingency. “This is an unusual move that indicates China’s intention to impose a naval blockade,” one of the sources said.

China charged Japanese woman with espionage for activities in Japan (Kyodo News)

China detained a Japanese woman in 2015, alleging she had engaged in spying activities in Japan, sources familiar with the bilateral relationship said Monday, marking the first known case in which actions taken in Japan became the basis for Chinese criminal prosecution.
The woman, a Chinese-born former executive of a Japanese language school in her 60s, was detained in Shanghai during a business trip after allegedly conveying a Chinese diplomat's views on the Tokyo-controlled, Beijing-claimed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea to the Japanese government, the sources said.
In December 2018, the Shanghai Intermediate People's Court sentenced her to six years for spying. In February 2019, the city's High People's Court ruled that while she had engaged in espionage, the information she sent to the Japanese government did not pertain to national security.

Malaysia grants WeChat, TikTok licences to operate under new law (Reuters)

Malaysia's communications regulator said it granted Tencent's WeChat and ByteDance's TikTok licences to operate in the country under a new social media law, but that some other platforms had not applied.
The law, aimed at tackling rising cybercrime, requires social media platforms and messaging services with more than 8 million users in Malaysia to obtain a licence or face legal action. It came into effect on Jan. 1.

Laos shutters Chinese-owned potash mine over sinkholes (RFA)

Laos has ordered a Chinese-owned potash mine believed responsible for two massive sinkholes in Khammouane province to cease operations until further notice, and to fill the sinkholes in, an official told Radio Free Asia.
On Dec. 4, a sinkhole measuring 20 meters (65 feet) wide and 10 meters (33 feet) deep opened up on farmland in Thakhaek district’s Pak Peng village. On Dec. 21, another sinkhole — about half the size of the first — formed nearby.
Residents suspect the sinkholes are a result of excavation at a potash mine in neighboring Nong Bok district, operated by Sino-Agri International Potash Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Asia Potash International Investment (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd., which is linked to entities directed by China’s governing State Council.

India says it conveyed concerns to China over hydropower dam in Tibet (Reuters)

India's foreign ministry said on Friday that New Delhi has conveyed its concerns to Beijing about China's plan to build a hydropower dam in Tibet on the Yarlung Zangbo river which flows into India.
Chinese officials say that hydropower projects in Tibet will not have a major impact on the environment or on downstream water supplies but India and Bangladesh have nevertheless raised concerns about the dam.
The Yarlung Zangbo becomes the Brahmaputra river as it leaves Tibet and flows south into India's Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states and finally into Bangladesh.
"The Chinese side has been urged to ensure that the interests of downstream states of the Brahmaputra are not harmed by activities in upstream areas," Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a weekly media briefing.
"We will continue to monitor and take necessary measures to protect our interests," he said.

Academics say China studies sector in 'crisis' amid a funding shortage and 'climate of fear' (ABC News)

David Goodman, the director of the University of Sydney's China Studies Centre, said China-related research began being viewed through a lens of fear around 2017.
The Australian Foreign Policy White Paper in 2017 represented a shift in Australia's attitude to China with a focus on national security risks, and efforts to counter China's influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
Australia's security agencies and senior government ministers became increasingly vocal about the scale of foreign interference by China, including in the university sector.
This was followed by the rapid deterioration of Australia-China relations in 2019.
"Nationalism has replaced the internationalism we had 15 years ago."
Maggie Ying Jiang, a China scholar in media and communications at the University of Western Australia, said the change in attitude towards China had created a "restrictive environment" in academia.
"As a China-born Australian, my experience has shown that unless you take an explicitly anti-China stance, there is a tendency for individuals in this field to be unfairly labelled or characterised," she said.

Americas

U.S. Treasury says computers hacked by a Chinese 'threat actor' (NBC News)

The U.S. Treasury Department said a state-sponsored Chinese hacking operation was able to access third-party software to tap into desktop computers of Treasury employees in what the department is calling "a major incident."
In a letter seen by NBC News, Aditi Hardikar, assistant secretary for management of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, wrote that the office was notified on Dec. 8 of the breach. The letter is addressed to Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
The information accessed by the “threat actor” included unclassified documents, according to the letter.
China denied the U.S. allegations.

U.S. Hits Chinese Cybersecurity Company With Sanctions After Breach (The New York Times)

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a Beijing-based cybersecurity company on Friday, blaming it for helping Chinese hackers infiltrate U.S. communications systems and conduct surveillance across four continents.
In an announcement, the department said the company, Integrity Technology Group, had supported a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group known as Flax Typhoon in a campaign to break into foreign networks between the summer of 2022 and 2023, saying it found the group had “routinely sent and received information from Integrity Tech infrastructure.”

US considers potential rules to restrict or bar Chinese drones (Reuters)

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday it is considering new rules that would impose restrictions on Chinese drones that would restrict or ban them in the United States citing national security concerns.
The department said it was seeking public comments by March 4 on potential rules to safeguard the supply chain for drones, saying threats from China and Russia "may offer our adversaries the ability to remotely access and manipulate these devices, exposing sensitive U.S. data."
China accounts for the vast majority of U.S. commercial drone sales.
In September, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the department could impose restrictions similar to those that would effectively ban Chinese vehicles from the United States and the focus will be on drones with Chinese and Russian equipment, chips and software.
She told Reuters in November she hopes to finalize the rules on Chinese vehicles by Jan. 20.
A decision to write new rules restricting or banning Chinese drones will be made by the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who takes over on Jan. 20.

China adds 28 US entities to export control list (Reuters)

China has added 28 U.S. entities to its export control list to "safeguard national security and interests", the commerce ministry said on Thursday.
The companies on the list include General Dynamics, Boeing Defense, Space & Security, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Missiles & Defense.
China is also banning the export of dual-use items to these companies starting on Thursday, the ministry said.

China hits US firms with sanctions over Taiwan arms sales (HKFP)

China sanctioned 10 US defence firms on Thursday over arms sales to Taiwan, its second round of measures against American companies over the issue in less than a week.
Subsidiaries of Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Raytheon that had “participated in selling arms to Taiwan” were added to China’s “Unreliable Entities List”, the country’s Ministry of Commerce announced Thursday.
They will be prohibited from import and export activities or making new investments in China, while their senior managers will be banned from entering the country, the ministry said.
Last Friday China announced sanctions on seven US military-industrial companies, including Boeing subsidiary Insitu, also over US military assistance to Taiwan.

China's Xi 'Deeply Saddened' By Jimmy Carter Death: CCTV (Barron's)

Chinese leader Xi Jinping said he was "deeply saddened" by the death aged 100 of former US president Jimmy Carter, state media reported on Monday.
Carter "had long made significant contributions to advancing the development of China-US ties and fostering friendly exchanges and cooperation between the two countries", state broadcaster CCTV reported Xi as saying, adding the Chinese president was "deeply saddened by his passing".

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‘An old friend’: Former US President Jimmy Carter remembered in China for establishing diplomatic ties (CNN)

Former US President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100, is remembered in China for bringing an end to decades of hostility and establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing – at the expense of Taiwan.
The diplomatic switch in 1979 led to profound changes in US-China relations in the following decades – and its implications are still being felt today, as tensions flare across the Taiwan Strait.
During the height of the Cold War, the Carter administration held months of secret negotiations with Chinese officials to normalize relations, which had been estranged since the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949.
For decades, Washington had recognized the Republic of China in Taipei as the sole legal government of China, after the Kuomintang was defeated by the Communists in the civil war and fled from the Chinese mainland to the island of Taiwan.
A rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China began during the presidency of Richard Nixon, who made an ice-breaking visit to Beijing in 1972. But it was Carter who oversaw Washington’s formal switch of diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
On December 15, 1978, Carter announced that at the start of 1979, the US would end its diplomatic relations with the Republic of China in Taipei and recognize the People’s Republic of China in Beijing as the sole legal government of China.

Jimmy Carter's passing met with mixed reactions in China, Taiwan (VOA)

Much like Xi, many Chinese commentators and internet users praised Carter’s contribution to normalizing U.S.-China relations.
Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of China’s state-run tabloid Global Times, said Carter helped to lay the foundation of the “friendly and cooperative relationship” between China and the U.S. by acknowledging China’s position on Taiwan.
While “his starting point is to safeguard the interests of the United States, during his term, China and the United States of America's common interests have been highlighted and highlighted,” he wrote in a statement on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
Other Chinese internet users also characterized Carter as being more friendly to China than other U.S. leaders. “Of all the living former U.S. presidents, he is one of the friendlier to China,” Chinese netizen “Sheng Yuan Ran Dong” from Heilongjiang province wrote on Weibo.
“He was a good pacifist. He opened the floodgates of history by establishing diplomatic relations between China and the U.S. His good qualities are truly worth highlighting,” Chinese internet user “Abu from the magic forest” from Jiangxi Province wrote on Weibo.
Lu Chao, the director of Liaoning University’s Institute of American and East Asian Studies, said Carter not only facilitated the establishment of U.S.-China relations, he also maintained very good relations with then-Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping.
“Former President Carter made the right choice that was in line with the trend of global development, the fundamental interests of the United States, and the interests of China. It is still praised by Chinese and American people,” he told VOA.
While reactions from China to Carter’s passing were largely positive, perceptions about the former U.S. president’s complicated legacy in Taiwan were mixed. In a short post on social media platform X, Taiwan’s Presidential Office extended “sincere condolences” to Carter’s family and the American people.

Fear That China Rules the Waves Jolts U.S. to Pursue Maritime Revival (WSJ)

Not long ago, America led the world in sea freight. At the end of World War II, the U.S. commercial marine fleet accounted for about half of the world’s cargo-shipping capacity. An American entrepreneur in the 1950s pioneered the shipping container, which revolutionized international commerce.
The Navy today expends vast resources from the Red Sea to the South China Sea defending the freedom of navigation, but few ships being protected fly the American flag.
U.S. commercial ships today account for less than 1% of the world fleet. U.S. ports are racked by strikes and battles over the type of automation that has supercharged expansion of container terminals across the globe. The Navy struggles to find commercial vessels to support its far-flung operations.
China, meanwhile, dominates both shipping and shipbuilding. Beijing heavily subsidizes its maritime sector, in turn boosting the efficiency of its breakneck naval shipbuilding campaign. President-elect Donald Trump recently expressed a desire to regain control of the Panama Canal, pointing to China—a top user of the waterway—as part of his thinking.
U.S. private shippers succumbed to economic forces of globalization after the Cold War, when government support shrank. Now calls are increasing for Washington to help resurrect U.S. commercial shipbuilding and freight hauling.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro has advocated a focus on “maritime statecraft,” stressing commercial shipping’s importance to the Navy in tasks including refueling ships and carrying vital military supplies. He has pushed to support American shipyards that build not just warships but also commercial vessels.
And he has championed expanding the U.S. Merchant Marine, a corps of commercial sailors who can assist the Navy in wartime and whose ranks have plunged over recent decades. Government and industry officials estimate the U.S. now has fewer than 10,000 merchant mariners, compared with roughly 50,000 in 1960.

US investors in China venture funds race to comply with new tech rules (Financial Times)

US investors in Chinese venture capital funds are racing to comply with new rules banning them from backing companies that develop artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies used by the People’s Liberation Army.
Measures by the Biden administration, which come into force on Thursday, impose civil and criminal penalties for US entities that invest in Chinese companies involved in semiconductors, quantum computing or AI systems that could be used by China’s military.
The rules introduce a hefty due diligence burden on US investors. Institutions with money tied up in Chinese investment funds must secure “binding contractual assurance” that their cash will not be used to buy companies that violate the rules.
Some large investors have secured such assurances from their Chinese fund managers in recent weeks, but requests from others have been refused, according to people advising large pension and endowment funds on compliance planning.
Many investors have responded by cutting back or pausing new investments in China amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing. Silicon Valley venture firms Sequoia Capital and GGV Capital separated from their Chinese entities in 2024.

U.S. Companies Vouched for China During Trump’s First Term. Not Anymore. (WSJ)

During Donald Trump’s first term, U.S. companies argued that a trade war with China was bad for Americans.
Businesses including Apple, Nike and small retailers said raising tariffs on imports from China would raise prices for consumers. Farmers and other businesses that exported to China warned about retaliatory tariffs from Beijing.
Now, as Trump prepares for his second administration, American companies have largely gone silent about the importance of the U.S.-China relationship. That is because American businesses no longer see China as the land of opportunity.
The promise of China’s market has faded as its once-booming economy hits trouble. And Beijing and Washington have implemented policies that make it harder for American businesses to succeed in the land of 1.4 billion people.
“U.S. companies are more wary about doing business in China,” said Anja Manuel, the executive director of the Aspen Security Forum and a consultant for American companies doing business abroad. “You see that across all industries.”
[…]
While many U.S. companies still have big stakes in China, others have scaled back. The American Chamber of Commerce in China, which represents more than 800 mainly U.S. companies in the country, said its members have gone to other countries for new investments.
The big problem is China’s economy, the world’s second-biggest after the U.S. For decades, it grew at nearly 10% annually. It was on track to gain 5% in 2024, but economists say that target will be tougher to hit in 2025.
U.S. companies used to put up with the difficulties of doing business in China, including potential loss of intellectual property and pressure from state-owned companies, because of the growth potential.
Starbucks shows how that has changed. In 2016, then-chief executive Howard Schultz said China could become the coffee company’s biggest market. Since then, Starbucks has been undercut by local chains selling cups of joe for $2 or less, and has fallen behind domestic leader Luckin Coffee.
“The competitive environment is extreme,” said new Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol in October, adding that the company was looking at partnerships in China.
U.S. businesses in China face increased competition from both state-owned enterprises and private businesses benefiting from subsidies or policies, said Michael Hart, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

Antony Blinken: ‘China has been trying to have it both ways’ (Financial Times)

Blinken has repeatedly lambasted China for allowing companies to send dual-use items with both civilian and military applications to Russia. The flow of trade has not fallen, so I ask why the administration has not taken actions with more teeth.
“They’ve been trying to have it both ways,” says Blinken, a reference to China also claiming to want to help bring peace to Ukraine. He says “China is hearing a chorus of concern from many countries” who along with the US have imposed sanctions on Chinese entities aiding the Russian war effort.
I push again, saying the US sanctions don’t appear to have changed the calculus in Beijing. “It’s not flipping a light switch, but I think it’s putting China in an increasingly difficult position . . . They certainly don’t like the actions that we’ve taken against Chinese entities. And I imagine that there’ll be more to come as necessary, including in the weeks ahead.”
[…]
I am also curious how he views the situation in Gaza compared to Xinjiang, where the Chinese government has detained more than 1mn Uyghurs in a persecution campaign. In his 2021 Senate confirmation hearing, he said China was committing “genocide” against the Uyghurs. Could the same conclusion not be drawn for the tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza? Blinken simply says “No”.
[…]
But nuclear weapons were also one of the few issues where China may have helped the US, despite Beijing’s support for Russia. “We have reason to believe that China engaged Russia and said: ‘Don’t go there’,” he says.
He adds that a similar dynamic may have occurred when the US told China that Putin was planning to put a nuclear weapon in space.

How Shen Yun Tapped Religious Fervor to Make $266 Million (The New York Times)

Over the past decade, the dance group Shen Yun Performing Arts has made money at a staggering rate.
The group had $60 million in 2015.
It had $144 million by 2019.
And by the end of last year, tax records show, it had more than a quarter of a billion dollars, stockpiling wealth at a pace that would be extraordinary for any company, let alone a nonprofit dance group from Orange County, N.Y.
Operated by Falun Gong, the persecuted Chinese religious movement, Shen Yun’s success flows in part from its ability to pack venues worldwide — while exploiting young, low-paid performers with little regard for their health or well-being.
But it also is a token of the power that Falun Gong’s founder, Li Hongzhi, has wielded over his followers. In the name of fighting communism, and obeying Mr. Li’s mystical teachings, they have created a global network to glorify him and enrich his movement.
Under Mr. Li’s direct leadership, Shen Yun has become a repository of vast wealth for Falun Gong, often accumulating money at the expense of its loyal adherents, a New York Times investigation has found.

How TSMC’s Arizona Chip Plant Seeded a Tiny Taipei in the Desert (The New York Times)

After Helen Wang finishes work at the new microchip plant looming over the Arizona desert, she drives home to start her side hustle: cooking pots of spicy beef soup and pork noodles for Taiwanese colleagues who are hungry for a taste of home.
There were almost no Asian groceries or Taiwanese restaurants nearby when the first workers began landing on the northern edge of Phoenix two years ago to work at a chip factory operated by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
Since then, the workers and their families have turned a mostly white corner of strip-mall suburbia into a Tiny Taipei.
Taiwanese businesses are popping up near taquerias and nail salons. Taiwanese cooks have joined Ms. Wang in ferrying meals to the chip factory’s parking lot. Supermarkets have started stocking Taiwanese sauces and noodles. The sound of Mandarin floats through day care centers and schools, where 282 Taiwanese students are enrolled this year.
The spaceshiplike factory drawing thousands of workers and their families to the area is a crucial part of President Biden’s effort to bolster advanced chip production in the United States. The company, known as TSMC, has committed $65 billion to the project and is set to receive $6.6 billion in grants through the CHIPS and Science Act.

Mexico unveils new tariffs, popular e-tailers like Shein, Temu may be in crosshairs (Reuters)

Mexico's tax authority SAT issued new tariffs on Tuesday, which it said will strengthen the surveillance of goods from Asia, a measure that could impact popular online retailers like Shein and Temu.
Goods that enter Mexico via courier companies originating from countries that do not have an international treaty with Mexico will be subject to a duty of 19%, SAT said in a statement shared with reporters.
Mexico does not have an international treaty with China, where Shein and Temu are based.
Goods entering via courier companies from Canada and the U.S., which are part of the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA), will be subject to a 17% duty if the value is greater than $50 but does not exceed $117.

Europe

China's Xi vows to promote 'world peace' in message to Putin - report (HKFP)

Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to promote “world peace” in a New Year’s message to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, state media reported on Tuesday.
“No matter how the international situation changes, China will remain steadfast in further comprehensively deepening reform… and promoting world peace and development,” Xi said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Since Putin’s full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022, China has sought to present itself as a neutral party, unlike the United States and other Western nations.
But it remains a close political and economic partner of Russia, leading some NATO members to brand Beijing an “enabler” of the war, which Beijing has never condemned.
According to CCTV, Xi told Putin: “In the face of rapidly evolving changes not seen in a century and the turbulent international situation, China and Russia have consistently moved forward hand-in-hand along the correct path of non-alignment, non-confrontation and not targeting any third party.”

Watching China in Europe with Noah Barkin—January 2025 Edition (

Noah Barkin

for the German Marshall Fund of the United States)

In capitals such as Paris and The Hague, there is a creeping recognition that the interconnected economic and security challenges that China presents will require new thinking. In mid-December, the Dutch foreign, trade, economy, and defense ministers sent an 11-page memo to members of parliament to update them on the government’s thinking on China. It is an interesting read. The memo touches on a wide range of areas, from cyber and Ukraine to the South China Sea, concluding that China (alongside Russia) represents “the greatest state threat to the security of the Netherlands”. During a recent visit to Paris, I heard similar messages regarding the economic threat that China poses. There is support in the French government for bolder EU measures to tackle the risks from Chinese overcapacities. During a mid-December trip to Beijing, President Emmanuel Macron’s top diplomatic adviser, I was told, informed his Chinese hosts that any diversion of Chinese exports from the United States to Europe would be met with a forceful response. “We need some out-of-the-box thinking at the margins of WTO rules. Everything needs to be on the table,” one senior French official told me.
Against this backdrop, Germany remains the biggest question mark. The hope is that a change of government there will bring more coherence to Berlin’s positions after three years of foreign policy infighting under Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Made in the EU: Estonia’s Contribution to a European Battery Supply Chain (China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe)

While the EU’s primary strategy has focused on diversification through external partnerships as part of its de-risking approach, it must also prioritize building local capacities within the bloc. China’s stronghold on the midstream and downstream segments of the CRM supply chains, which are closely tied to batteries, means that some level of entanglement with China is inevitable.
However, Estonia’s example demonstrates that this entanglement can be balanced by focusing on areas where the EU can realistically reduce its dependencies and compete with China. Promising opportunities lie in developing sustainable and innovative alternatives to CRMs, fostering deeper pan-European cooperation, and collaborating with international partners.

Chinese Airlines Skirt Southern Russia After Azerbaijan Plane Crash (Caixin)

Some Chinese airlines are rerouting flights to avoid Russia’s southern airspace after an Azerbaijani passenger plane was shot down, reportedly by the Russian military, in the region on Christmas Day.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243, en route from Baku to Grozny, the capital city of southern Russian republic of Chechnya, crash-landed near Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia, where Moscow has repeatedly used air defense systems against Ukrainian drone strikes. Thirty-eight of the 67 people on board died in the crash.

Xi congratulates Mikheil Kavelashvili on assuming Georgian presidency (Xinhua)

Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently congratulated Mikheil Kavelashvili on his assuming office as the Georgian president.
Xi pointed out that the current China-Georgia strategic partnership has maintained a positive momentum of development.

Middle East & North Africa (MENA)

Syria appoints some foreign Islamist fighters to its military, sources say (Reuters)

Syria's new rulers have installed some foreign fighters including Uyghurs, a Jordanian and a Turk in the country's armed forces as Damascus tries to shape a patchwork of rebel groups into a professional military, two Syrian sources said.
The move to give official roles, including senior ones, to several jihadists may alarm some foreign governments and Syrian citizens fearful about the new administration's intentions, despite its pledges not to export Islamic revolution and to rule with tolerance towards Syria's large minority groups.
[…]
Chinese Uyghur militant Abdulaziz Dawood Khudaberdi, also known as Zahid and the commander of the separatist Turkistan Islamic Party's (TIP) forces in Syria, was appointed a brigadier-general, a TIP statement said and the Syrian military source confirmed.
Two other Uyghur fighters, Mawlan Tarsoun Abdussamad and Abdulsalam Yasin Ahmad, were given the rank of colonel, said the TIP statement published on its website, congratulating them and the Uyghur community on the appointments.
All the names appear in Sunday's Defence Ministry announcement, though the nationalities are not included.
The TIP is thought to have hundreds of fighters in Syria and aims to establish an Islamic State in parts of China and central Asia, where there is a large Uyghur Muslim population.
Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including the mass use of forced labour in camps. Beijing denies any abuses.
"The East Turkestan Islamic Movement is a terrorist organisation listed by the UN Security Council," Mao Ning, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, told a regular press conference on Tuesday, using China's name for TIP.
"The international community should fully recognise the violent nature of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and resolutely crack down on it," she added.

Business, Economy & Finance

Xi urges confidence in China’s economy as GDP growth on track to hit target of around 5% (SCMP)

China will prioritise economic growth and will be able to overcome domestic difficulties and external headwinds in 2025, President Xi Jinping said in his televised New Year’s message on Tuesday.
The rallying call for confidence in the country’s growth prospects followed his announcement earlier in the day that China’s economy is expected to have grown around 5 per cent by the end of this year.
“The current economy faces new challenges, including uncertainty in the external environment and the pressures from the transition between old and new energies,” Xi said in the televised message.
“However, these challenges can be overcome through hard work. We have always grown stronger through adversity, so we must remain confident.”
With the growth rate on track to meet the government target, Xi said China’s gross domestic product (GDP) was set to surpass 130 trillion yuan (US$17.8 trillion) this year. This is an increase from 129.4 trillion yuan last year.

China’s premier tells local authorities to give economy early boost in new year (SCMP)

China’s leadership has sent a clear signal to local governments to act resolutely and swiftly for a strong start to 2025, as concerns grow over the country’s ability to sustain economic growth amid rising external uncertainties and weak domestic demand.
During a visit to Shandong province, Premier Li Qiang urged local authorities to “take on a sense of urgency and responsibility, seizing the day and starting strong from the beginning”, Xinhua reported on Thursday.
“As we enter the new year … we must ensure the early implementation of policies, accelerate the advancement of projects, and deliver tangible results with our measures, striving to achieve a good start for this year’s economic development,” he said.
Li called for expanded trade-in programmes to boost consumption, emphasising the need to broaden their scope, continue subsidy funding, and maximise the policy’s impact.
He also urged a major push to expand charging and battery-swapping infrastructure to accommodate the growing number of new energy vehicles in China. Progress should also be accelerated in the building of key infrastructure and livelihood projects, such as sports venues and modern water networks, the premier said.

China urges more aid for people in need as economic woes persist (Reuters)

The Chinese government urged local officials to provide more financial relief or step up one-time allowances to people in need ahead of major holidays over the next month, as China's economic difficulties are set to extend into 2025.
China's economy has struggled to gather steam this year, mainly due to a protracted property crisis and weak domestic demand. Securing employment, particularly for fresh college graduates, is also a policy priority, authorities say.
Ahead of New Year's Day and the Lunar New Year in late January, local governments with financial capacity are encouraged to distribute relief funds or step up one-time allowances to those in need, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a statement published on Saturday [Dec 28].
The ministry issued a similar call in late September ahead of a major holiday for one-off assistance to the extremely poor, orphans and those in difficulty.

China says 'determined' to continue opening economy to world in 2025 (HKFP)

China is “determined” to continue opening up its economy to the world in 2025, a top economic planning official said Friday, as Beijing steels itself for potential trade turmoil when US President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
[…]
“In the new year we will certainly take many new measures… to steadily expand systemic openness and further build a business environment that is marketised, under rule of law, and internationalised,” NDRC deputy director Zhao Chenxin said at a press conference on Friday.
He said China plans to encourage greater foreign investment in “advanced manufacturing, modern services, high-tech, energy saving and environmental protection”.

China will sharply increase funding from treasury bonds to spur growth in 2025 (Reuters)

China will sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds in 2025 to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official said on Friday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalise the faltering economy.
Special treasury bonds will be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da, deputy secretary-general of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) at a press conference.
"The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives," Yuan said.
Under the programme launched last year, consumers can trade-in old cars or appliances and buy new ones at a discount, and a separate one that subsidises large-scale equipment upgrades for businesses.
Households also will be eligible for subsidies to buy three types of digital products this year, including cell phones, tablets, smart watches and bracelets, Yuan said.

Calling all smartphone seekers: China to subsidise personal devices, expand trade-in push (SCMP)

China will subsidise consumers who purchase new smartphones this year, in the latest attempt to elevate the country’s sluggish domestic consumption as external uncertainties are set to mount.
The country’s nationwide consumer trade-in programme, funded by sovereign bonds, will be expanded to personal digital products, including smartphones and tablets, as well as smartwatches and bracelets, its top economic planner announced on Friday.
Yuan Da, deputy secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a press conference that China will “significantly increase the scale of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds” to support the expansion of consumer goods trade-ins and industrial equipment upgrades in 2025.

China’s central bank plans policy overhaul as pressure mounts on economy (Financial Times)

The People’s Bank of China plans to cut interest rates this year as it makes a historic shift to a more orthodox monetary policy to bring it closer into line with the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.
In comments to the Financial Times, the Chinese central bank said it was likely it would cut interest rates from the current level of 1.5 per cent “at an appropriate time” in 2025.
It added that it would prioritise “the role of interest rate adjustments” and move away from “quantitative objectives” for loan growth in what would amount to a transformation of Chinese monetary policy.
Most central banks, such as the Fed, have only one policy variable, the benchmark interest rate, which they use to influence demand for credit and activity in the economy.
The PBoC by contrast not only sets a multitude of different interest rates but also gives unofficial guidance to banks on how much they should expand their loan books.
While such guidance was its most important tool in managing the economy for decades — as loans were steered to high-growth sectors such as manufacturing, technology and property — officials within the PBoC believe reform is now urgent.
“Rate reform is likely to be the true focus of the PBoC in 2025,” said Richard Xu, chief China financial analyst with Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong. “China’s economic development urgently needs to shift from a mindset focused solely on expanding the market size [of banks’ loan books].”

Chinese Banks Can Now Lend Up to 90% for Stock Buybacks via Relending Facility, Sources Say (Yicai)

Chinese regulators will now allow banks to lend up to 90 percent of the funds for share buybacks and stake increases by listed companies and their major shareholders through the USD41 billion special relending facility unveiled last September, according to people familiar with the matter.
Following recent policy changes, eligible firms and their main investors only need use up to 10 percent of their own money on stock repurchases and equity holding increases, compared with 30 percent previously, the sources said, adding that they can also pledge other stocks as collateral, making it easier and cheaper to secure the loans.
Furthermore, banks can now set their own loan terms and collateral requirements, the sources said. The new policy also explicitly encourages issuing stock repurchase and buyback loans based on creditworthiness, without the need for collateral or guarantees.

China's cenbank warns mutual funds against feeding bond frenzy, sources say (Reuters)

China's central bank summoned some fund managers on Friday to warn them against chasing a fervid bond rally, two sources said, amid worries that a bubble in bonds might undercut Beijing’s efforts to revive growth and manage a depreciating currency.
Friday's meeting is the latest in a string of warnings the People's Bank of China has issued to banks and investment managers since last year.
One of the sources said such meetings between the PBOC and institutional investors have become more regular recently, occurring several times a week, as investors seek succour in the safety of bonds and bet on weakness in stocks.
The source, who works at a major mutual fund house, said that only fund managers with an "extremely passive approach toward bond investment" were safe from such summons, with the rest of the industry in the PBOC's crosshairs.

Chinese Stocks Tumble in Worst Start to a Year Since 2016 (Bloomberg)

Chinese stocks fell on their first trading day of the year as investors braced for economic uncertainties with weaker-than-expected manufacturing data and an anticipated hike in tariffs once Donald Trump takes office.
The CSI 300 Index, an onshore benchmark, slid as much 1.7% on Thursday, headed for a second session of losses. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped 3.1% before paring its decline.
The moves come after Chinese equities posted their first annual advance last year since 2020. Investors pointed to a range of factors behind the cautious sentiment, including the Caixin manufacturing survey that came in below estimates. A sharp fall in the CSI 300 in the last trading session of 2024 also pushed the gauge below a closely-watched technical threshold, likely leading to further selling by some funds.
Meanwhile, several large financial stocks including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China were trading ex-dividend, exacerbating the benchmarks’ losses.
“As we position our funds into the first quarter of 2025, it just seems far more likely that downside risk is far greater than upside for China,” said Xin-Yao Ng, an investment director at abrdn Plc. There are uncertainties around tariffs, soft macro numbers and a probable lull in policy stimulus until the Two-Session meetings in March, he said, referring to the country’s annual legislative session.

Slide in Land Sales Persists as China’s Property Developers Pushed to the Brink (Caixin)

Land sales across China have fallen to their lowest levels in years, with a nearly 20% decline in 2024, underscoring the persistent struggles in the property market that are crippling the ability of developers to expand.
As of December 29, land sales in 300 Chinese cities totaled only 1.38 billion square meters, a 16% year-on-year drop, according to property data provider China Index Academy.

China December new home prices rise a touch faster, survey shows (Reuters)

Prices of new homes in China rose at a slightly faster pace in December, a private survey showed on Wednesday, as the crisis-hit property sector struggles to find a bottom on the heels of a slew of supportive government policies.
The average price of new homes across 100 cities edged up 0.37% from a month earlier, compared with the 0.36% rise in November, according to data from property researcher China Index Academy.
On a year-on-year basis, the average price rose 2.68% in December, versus 2.40% growth in the previous month.

China’s Real Estate Challenge (IMF)

Anyone who has traveled to China is aware of its world-class infrastructure, even in its outermost provinces. The buildup of real estate across small and medium-size cities in China is remarkable both in quantity and quality. Indeed, per capita housing space in China now exceeds that of any major European country, even though China’s per capita GDP is only a third as high.
Even five years ago, it should have been clear that a significant adjustment was inevitable, or at least so we suggested. But some scholars countered that China’s adjustment to a smaller real estate sector could in principle be very gradual, if resources were deployed for rebuilding substandard housing over a period of decades.
This view does not stand up to scrutiny, however. Much of China’s housing is relatively new at this stage, and many of the dilapidated units are in parts of the country where the population has long been shrinking.
More recently, others have suggested that China can repurpose its construction sector to deal with the green transition. But real estate and its related sectors, which account for about 15 percent of employment, are just too big to be easily absorbed elsewhere.
In fact, very few countries have found it easy to maintain growth when the real estate sector runs into trouble, often leading to a financial crisis. Singapore is perhaps an exception. But the city-state is a small open economy with a population less than half a percent of China’s.
China can also build up its exports. One would think that countries serious about the green transition would welcome its low-cost electric vehicles. However, geopolitical frictions and populist politics in the US and Europe make this shift difficult.

China factory activity grows more slowly, services recover (Reuters)

China's manufacturing activity barely grew in December though services and construction recovered, an official survey showed on Tuesday, suggesting policy stimulus is trickling into some sectors as the economy braces for new trade risks.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) purchasing managers' index (PMI) slowed to 50.1 in December from 50.3 a month prior, staying above the 50-mark separating growth from contraction but missing a median forecast of 50.3 in a Reuters poll.

China Has Limited Firepower to Counter U.S. Tariffs (WSJ)

While China can inflict pain on the U.S. with the economic tools at its disposal, it is more likely to wield them sparingly, according to analysts. Instead, Beijing could use the measures to force talks to negotiate a truce with Donald Trump should he follow through on his promise to impose 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
“Just using these tools willy-nilly doesn’t make sense. You have to be driving towards an outcome, which is some sort of negotiation,” said Logan Wright, head of China markets research at Rhodium Group, a New York-based think tank.
When Trump began hitting Chinese imports with tariffs in 2018, Beijing responded by raising tariffs of its own on imports of U.S. products such as food, chemicals and textiles.
With a more intense trade skirmish looming, Beijing has been showcasing the tools it has refined since the trade war during Trump’s first administration—tools it believes are more effective than a tit-for-tat escalation in tariffs.
In December, Beijing tightened controls on exports of raw materials used in the manufacture of advanced electronics and batteries and in other high-tech fields. That move was in response to the Biden administration’s decision to cut China’s access to certain memory chips used in artificial intelligence. Beijing has also extended controls over parts used in the manufacture of drones, which have proved vital to Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
China also has announced an antitrust investigation of Nvidia, the U.S. chip juggernaut, saying it might have violated the terms of a conditional approval it received from Beijing in 2020 for its acquisition of an Israeli networking company.
Beijing also maintains an “unreliable entity list” of companies that face extra hurdles in doing business in China. In September, it said it was considering placing PVH, the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, on the list because of reports that the U.S. company had boycotted cotton products from China’s Xinjiang region, where China is accused of using forced labor in its factories. Beijing denies the forced-labor allegations.
Yet analysts said this mix of export restrictions and the targeting of U.S. companies isn’t such a potent set of countermeasures.
[…]
“Every aggressive move by China accelerates U.S. companies’ diversification and decoupling efforts,” said Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at the nonpartisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “It’s a self-reinforcing cycle, much like China’s own economic spiral—Beijing’s actions ultimately weaken its hand further.”
Beijing has other options. There are many ways that China could retaliate using low-value and low-tech products, said Martin Lynge Rasmussen, senior strategist at Exante Data, a research firm. Such is China’s dominance of everyday manufactured goods—think screws, bolts, charging cables—that it has the potential to be downright annoying for American consumers. That could be politically costly for Trump.
“There are a lot of things that China could just choke off at little domestic cost,” he said.
China could also let its currency weaken against the dollar, giving its exports a leg up in world markets and in the U.S. and helping to offset higher tariffs. But such a move could drive capital flight from China, something Beijing is anxious to avoid. Most economists think Beijing might tolerate a limited and controlled devaluation, but not a steep slide in the yuan.

Chinese Companies Have Sidestepped Trump’s Tariffs. They Could Do It Again. (The New York Times)

After President Donald J. Trump slapped tariffs on Chinese bicycles in 2018, Arnold Kamler, then the chief executive of the bike maker Kent International, saw a curious trend play out in the bicycle industry.
Chinese bicycle factories moved their final manufacturing and assembly operations out of China, setting up new facilities in Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and India. Using parts mostly from China, those companies made bicycles that they could export directly to the United States — without paying the 25 percent tariff had the bike been shipped straight from China.
“The net effect of what’s going on with these tariffs is that Chinese factories in China are setting up Chinese factories in other countries,” said Mr. Kamler, whose company imports some bicycles from China and makes others at a South Carolina factory.
Pushing those factories into other countries resulted in additional costs for companies and consumers, without increasing the amount of manufacturing in the United States, Mr. Kamler said. He said he had been forced to raise his prices several times as a result of the tariffs.
“There’s no real gain here,” said Mr. Kamler, whose bikes are sold at Walmart and other retailers. “It’s very inflationary.”
As Mr. Trump prepares to return to office with sweeping plans to impose more levies on foreign goods, economists and business owners are pointing to unintended consequences that resulted from his tariffs the first time around.

China proposes further export curbs on battery, critical minerals tech (Reuters)

China's commerce ministry has proposed export restrictions on some technology used to make battery components and process critical minerals lithium and gallium, a document, opens new tab issued on Thursday showed.
If implemented, they would be the latest in a series of export restrictions and bans targeting critical minerals and the technology used to process them, areas in which Beijing is globally dominant.
Their announcement precedes the inauguration later this month of Donald Trump for a second term during which he is expected to use tariffs and various trade restrictions against other countries, in particular China.
Adam Webb, head of battery raw materials at consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, said China's proposals would help the country retain its 70% grip on the global processing of lithium into the material needed to make electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

Beijing seeks to curb ‘shakedown’ detentions of Chinese executives (Financial Times)

China’s central government is trying to curb a spate of detentions by local authorities of business executives that is fuelling anxiety among entrepreneurs and risks undercutting efforts to boost economic growth.
A review of filings by the Financial Times found senior figures in more than 80 companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges were detained in 2024.
China’s securities regulator requires that listed companies disclose detentions of controlling shareholders, chairs, chief executives and other top managers, and the numbers suggest much broader action against executives across the country.
Some of the detentions appeared to have little or no legal basis and in many cases were carried out by authorities based far from the target’s business operations, a practice Chinese media have dubbed “long-range fishing”. One leaked official document from the southern province of Guangdong said thousands of companies in a single city had been targets of action by authorities from other areas since 2023.
Premier Li Qiang this month called for stronger supervision of company-related law enforcement, saying the government would review regions with abnormal income growth from fines and confiscations or high levels of enforcement outside their jurisdiction.
“Instances of abuse of administrative discretion and unfair enforcement persist in certain areas and sectors,” Li said, according to the official news agency Xinhua. The premier added that it was essential to address “the pressing issues raised by citizens and businesses”.

China 2024 box office revenue plunges as industry downturn deepens (Reuters)

China's 2024 box office revenue slumped by almost a quarter from the previous year, official data showed on Wednesday, dealing a blow to a limping domestic industry yet to fully recover from the pandemic.
Box office revenue totalled 42.502 billion yuan ($5.82 billion), according to the China Film Administration. That's down 22.6% from 54.915 billion yuan in 2023, and 34% lower than the pre-pandemic peak in 2019.
Of that, box office revenue of domestic films totalled 33.439 billion yuan, plunging 27.3% from 46.005 billion yuan in 2023.

Trouble in China's shopping paradise as Hainan duty-free spending tumbles (Reuters)

Duty-free spending slumped 29.3% last year in China's island province of Hainan, where global luxury players from LVMH to Kering have set up shop, as a weak economy led to a sharp drop in numbers of domestic visitors.
Shoppers visiting Hainan, known for its glitzy seafront hotels and sandy beaches, spent 30.94 billion yuan ($4.24 billion) on duty-free goods in 2024, customs data showed on Thursday, down from 43.76 billion in 2023.
Their numbers fell 15.9% to 5.683 million, the data showed, from 6.756 million in 2023.
"The depreciation of foreign currencies, such as the Japanese yen, combined with attractive travel policies like visa-free entry in Malaysia, has led many Chinese consumers to seek lower prices abroad," said Kenneth Chow, principal at consultancy Oliver Wyman.
While retail spending in Hainan is not crucial for China's economy, the declines deal a blow to foreign luxury brands.

China mandates 30% EVs in government fleets in boost for carmakers, decarbonisation (SCMP)

Chinese government departments have been told to prioritise electric vehicle (EVs) purchases for official use, as Beijing ramps up efforts to promote the use of environmentally friendly vehicles while providing another boost for the industry.
A circular from the Ministry of Finance on Monday said that ministry-level authorities and their units across the country should make sure that EVs account for at least 30 per cent of their total annual purchases. The minimum requirement will be raised in the coming years.
“The circular has been released to better regulate government procurement of new-energy vehicles [NEVs],” the statement said. “The goal is to promote the use of electric cars.”
Sales of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in China, the world’s largest automotive and EV market, account for more than 60 per cent of the global total. Since July, demand for EVs has outpaced that for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

Tesla sales stall as China's BYD closes in (BBC)

The company, led by billionaire Elon Musk, delivered almost 1.79 million cars last year, down about 1% from 1.8 million in 2023.
This comes despite the company lowering prices repeatedly last year in a bid to woo buyers and hold on to its rank as the world's top-selling maker of electric vehicles (EVs).
China's BYD, however, looks set to close the gap after reporting 1.76 million EV sales in 2024.
The Shenzhen-based firm's total vehicle sales jumped more than 41% in 2024, year-on-year, to more than 4.2 million.
The surge was powered mainly by sales of its hybrid cars.
BYD sells 90% of its cars in China, where it has been extending its lead over foreign brands including Volkswagen and Toyota.

Tesla's China sales hit record high in 2024, bucking global decline (Reuters)

U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla said on Friday its China sales rose 8.8% to a record high of more than 657,000 cars in 2024, a strong performance in a competitive market in a year when its annual global deliveries fell for the first time.
Tesla's sales in the world's largest auto market also increased 12.8% in December from a month earlier to a record high of 83,000 units, according to Tesla China.
In 2024, Tesla delivered 36.7% of its cars to customers in China, its second-largest market, based on the sales figures.
However, its global deliveries slid 1.1%, missing CEO Elon Musk's earlier prediction of slight growth, with exports from China falling by 24%. Reduced European subsidies, a U.S. shift toward lower-priced hybrid vehicles and tougher global competition, especially from China's BYD, were a drag on sales.

Apple's China troubles mount as foreign phone sales sink for 4th month (Reuters)

Shipments to China of foreign-branded smartphones, including Apple Inc's iPhone, fell by 47.4% in November from a year earlier, according to data released on Friday from a government-affiliated research firm, down for the fourth month.
Calculations based on the data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed that foreign brand shipments decreased to 3.04 million units from 5.769 million units a year earlier.
The decline follows October's 44.25% year-on-year drop in foreign smartphone shipments, extending a downward trend in the world's largest smartphone market.
Apple, the dominant foreign smartphone maker in China, faces a slowing economy and competition from domestic rivals, such as Huawei.

China steps up drive to break Boeing and Airbus grip on plane market (Financial Times)

Comac’s heavily subsidised C919, which made its maiden commercial flight in 2023, is already flown on domestic routes by China’s three big state-owned carriers: Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines. From this month, China Eastern will fly the C919 between Hong Kong and Shanghai, its first regular commercial route outside China’s mainland.
Yang Yang, the company’s deputy general manager of marketing and sales, told the Financial Times the company was aiming for the single-aisle plane to be flying in south-east Asia by 2026 and to gain European certification as early as this year.
“We hope to operate more of the jets domestically in China and to thoroughly identify any issues before . . . bringing them to south-east Asia,” he said.
The C919 is a pivotal project in President Xi Jinping’s drive for China to move up the technology value chain, with the ultimate aim of challenging the western duopoly of Boeing and Airbus.
Boeing’s financial woes and delivery delays, as well as wider supply chain problems in the industry that have left it and Airbus facing engine and component shortages, have weighed on the global aviation sector and offered hope for newcomers.
The world will need 42,430 new aircraft over the next two decades, roughly 80 per cent of which will be single-aisle aircraft, according to an Airbus forecast in 2024. Aviation consultancy IBA predicts that Comac can raise its output of C919s — 16 of which have been delivered to Chinese airlines as of December — from one to 11 a month by 2040, by which time it can deliver almost 2,000 units of the aircraft.
However, Jonathan McDonald, IBA’s manager for classic and cargo aircraft, said that while Comac would eventually penetrate export markets, “for the foreseeable future Airbus and Boeing will be the main suppliers of narrow-bodies to most airlines”.
Global certification and maintenance support remain significant hurdles to Comac’s ambition for the C919 to operate overseas.

Alibaba sells stake in Chinese hypermarket operator at steep discount (Financial Times)

Alibaba has agreed to sell its entire stake in China’s largest hypermarket operator at a steep discount, as it sharpens its focus on core ecommerce operations amid intensifying competition.
The Chinese tech group will sell its 73.7 per cent stake in Sun Art Retail to private equity firm DCP Capital at HK$1.75 per share, the company disclosed in a filing on Wednesday evening, after the shares had closed the day at $2.48.
The sale is expected to raise gross proceeds of up to $1.7bn, but will mean a loss of Rmb13.2bn ($1.8bn) for Alibaba shareholders when the deal is completed, it added.
[…]
The Sun Art deal came after Alibaba’s exit from Intime Retail Group in December, marking Alibaba’s second major divestment of bricks-and-mortar assets in less than a month. The department store chain was sold to a consortium including clothes retailer Youngor Group and Intime’s management team for $1bn, less than half what Alibaba had paid for it seven years earlier.
The quick sales of Sun Art — the biggest hypermarket operator by number of stores and staff — and Intime at significant discounts underscore the urgency of Alibaba’s pivot back to its ecommerce roots in a bid to sustain growth and strengthen competitiveness.

Expert Predictions for Chinese Tourism in 2025 (Dragon Trail International)

How will Chinese travelers explore the world in 2025? Which trends will shape their travel decisions, purchases, and behaviors? And how will tourism brands successfully market to Chinese consumers? To look ahead at the year to come for Chinese outbound tourism, we asked experts in tourism and marketing what they forecast and anticipate for 2025.

China preps for inbound Lunar New Year travel surge after visa-free expansion (SCMP)

Inbound travel to China is expected to increase significantly over the coming Lunar New Year holiday, driven by the country’s expansion of its visa-free entry list and other efforts to attract international visitors and revitalise its tourism sector.
According to Trip.com, a major online platform for tourism bookings in the country, total inbound travel purchases for the period – which runs from January 28 to February 4 this year – have increased by over 200 per cent year on year.
Bookings from South Korea surged by 452 per cent year on year, with Singapore, Japan and the United States also well-represented on the list of inbound travellers’ countries of origin.
“The newly implemented visa-free policy for South Korean travellers has been particularly significant, drawing large numbers of Korean tourists to destinations like Harbin, Chengdu and Shanghai,” the platform said in a statement.
Meanwhile, during the recent break for New Year’s Day – a public holiday in China, but not as busy as the annual Lunar New Year travel rush – about 185,000 inbound and outbound trips were made by foreign tourists.
This was a 33.6 per cent year-on-year increase according to the National Immigration Administration, and outpaced the 11.1 per cent growth in total trips made by mainland Chinese travellers and 12.8 per cent growth in trips made by residents of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.

China's operating high-speed railway to hit 60,000 km by 2030 (Xinhua)

China aims to expand the length of its operating high-speed rail tracks to around 60,000 km by 2030, up from 48,000 km at the end of 2024, data from the country's railway operator showed on Thursday.
As the country continues to improve its railway infrastructure, the operating mileage of its railway network is expected to reach 180,000 km by 2030, up from 162,000 km at the end of 2024, according to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway).
China Railway said the country's fixed-asset investment in the railway sector is projected to reach 590 billion yuan (about 82.08 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, with an estimated 2,600 km of new rail tracks set to become operational within the year.

Chinese gym chain hit by branch closures in sign of economic strain (Nikkei Asia)

A private equity-backed gym operator in China is in crisis after a cash crunch prompted a wave of store closures, underscoring consumers' weak appetite for nonessential spending.
More than 30 gyms under Will's Group, which operates the Will's Fitness, W Fitness and VIP brands, abruptly closed in December in Shanghai, home to the majority of its locations, according to Nikkei Asia's analysis. Staff at many of the 30 or so branches that are still operational said they were unsure how long the doors would remain open.

Tech & Media

China announces mutual recognition of self-driving car permits in Greater Bay Area (TechNode)

The governments of several major cities in China’s affluent Guangdong province announced on Dec. 27 that they have struck a mutual recognition agreement of permissions to test self-driving vehicles, which marks a big step forward in the development and adoption of autonomous vehicles in the region. The move will allow companies to test their robocars on public roads in the districts of Qianhai and Bao’an in Shenzhen, the Nansha district of Guangzhou, and Hengqin island in Zhuhai, once they get a permit from any of the local governments.
Hong Kong and Macau special administrative regions are also expected to join the agreement, as part of a broader goal to establish China’s biggest area for self-driving car tests in the Greater Bay Area, which includes Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Beijing unveils plans to boost driverless vehicle use in capital (Reuters)

China's capital Beijing passed new regulations on Tuesday to encourage autonomous driving technology in the city, with authorities planning to eventually allow driverless public buses and taxis.
Autonomous vehicles that pass road testing and safety assessments will be allowed to apply for road trials, the state-backed Beijing Daily newspaper reported, which said the new regulations take effect from April 1.
The city supports the use of autonomous vehicles for private cars, urban buses, trams and taxis, it said, adding that it wants to encourage the construction of intelligent road infrastructure to support such transport.
In a separate notice published on Monday, the central Chinese city of Wuhan also said it had approved regulations to promote the development of intelligent connected vehicles.

Beijing Pushes to Use China-Made Chips in Its EVs (WSJ)

Beijing is making little secret of its industrial policy, reasoning that controlling the brains inside the world’s most important consumer product is too important to be left to market forces. It is setting targets for homegrown chips and supporting domestic chip makers through state semiconductor funds including a $47 billion one started in May.
Foreign companies in the car-chip business, which has annual revenue of more than $80 billion, face a choice of producing more in China or losing sales. Many are choosing the former, upending the lean and efficient global supply chain for chips.
“If the world wants to decouple, you can do China for China and non-China for non-China,” said Texas Instruments’ chief executive, Haviv Ilan, at a December investor briefing. “If the world stays open, and I hope it will, you can continue to have this diverse supply chain.”
The U.S. and Europe are also promoting domestic semiconductor production. A 2022 U.S. law passed under President Biden is funding tens of billions of dollars in subsidies.
Industry executives said many of the integrated circuits China produces for vehicles are low-end commodity chips, and it is years away from complete self-sufficiency. Even so, China’s progress shows how it can make strides in producing items for which it previously relied on the U.S., Europe and Japan.

ByteDance appears to be skirting US restrictions to buy Nvidia chips: Report (TechCrunch)

TikTok parent company ByteDance has big plans to buy Nvidia chips in 2025 — despite U.S. restrictions.
ByteDance plans to spend $7 billion on the chips in 2025, according to reporting from The Information, citing inside sources. If ByteDance follows through, it will become one of the world’s top owners of Nvidia chips, despite U.S. efforts to restrict Chinese companies from buying U.S. AI chips like these.
In 2022, the U.S. announced export restrictions on certain kinds of AI chips to countries, including China, where ByteDance is headquartered. These restrictions have gotten tighter multiple times since.
ByteDance is technically adhering to these restrictions by using a loophole: The company isn’t bringing the chips directly to China and is instead storing them in data centers located in other regions like Southeast Asia, according to The Information’s reporting. This doesn’t technically violate U.S. restrictions.

Alibaba Cloud, RayNeo team up to integrate AI models in AR (Tech in Asia)

RayNeo, a consumer-grade augmented reality (AR) brand, announced a collaboration with Alibaba Cloud on January 2, 2025.
The partnership will focus on integrating Alibaba Cloud’s Tongyi series large AI models into RayNeo’s AI glasses.
This collaboration represents the first in-depth customization of an AI large model with a hardware manufacturer for AI glasses in China.

Top 10 China's AI Stories in 2024: A Year-End Review (

Recode China AI

by Tony Peng
)

As we close out the year, I want to wrap up with 10 AI stories that shaped 2024. Although these stories don’t capture the entire landscape of China’s AI progress, they highlight what I believe were the most significant developments.

‘Making the impossible possible’: Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou lauds US-sanctioned firm’s 2024 (SCMP)

Huawei Technologies’ chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, on Tuesday extolled the US-sanctioned company’s resilience on multiple fronts – from artificial intelligence (AI) chip development to growing adoption of its own mobile operating system, HarmonyOS – in a morale-boosting New Year’s Eve message.
Over the past six years, Huawei “experienced countless moments of darkness, uncertainty and defeat”, but has also seen “one miracle after another, making the impossible possible”, Meng, daughter of Huawei founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei, wrote in a message published by the Shenzhen-based firm.
Meng, 52, thanked Huawei’s customers, supply chain partners and employees for a groundbreaking year. In October, she assumed for the second time the position of rotating and acting chairwoman at Huawei for a six-month tenure that ends on March 31.

Huawei to pre-install self-developed HarmonyOS on all new devices in 2025 (TechNode)

In 2025, all new Huawei smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices will come pre-installed with HarmonyOS, with older models gradually receiving the upgrade, according to Huawei.

China Slaps Heavy Fine on Top Dating Platform for False Ads (Sixth Tone)

In one of the largest penalties ever issued to a dating platform, Zhenai — one of China’s oldest matchmaking services — has been fined 1.7 million yuan ($232,000) for false advertising.
On Dec. 30, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation announced action against Zhenai for false advertising after concluding the company used automated template messages to mislead users. These pre-written messages exaggerated membership numbers, sent fictitious notifications, and promoted fabricated success stories in marketing campaigns.
Regulators said Zhenai’s actions infringed on consumer rights, damaged the matchmaking industry’s reputation, and disrupted fair market competition. Authorities have since instructed the company to improve internal oversight and standardize its operations.

China’s tech giants vow to fix algorithm issues amid government crackdown (SCMP)

Major Chinese internet platforms have vowed to improve their algorithms, after the mainland’s internet watchdog launched a campaign to address the misuse of the technology underpinning the recommendation functions of apps and websites.
ByteDance’s TikTok alternative for its home market, Douyin, said on Friday it would establish a safety centre this year to make its recommendation system more transparent. It will also provide a more diverse video feed and strengthen its crackdown on misinformation and online violence, according to the company’s WeChat post.
Pinduoduo, a budget shopping app run by Temu owner PDD Holdings, said on the same day that it was “actively building a healthier ecosystem” to prevent “Big Data-enabled price discrimination”, according to Chinese news outlet Yicai. PDD did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours on Saturday.
Also on Friday, Xiaohongshu, a lifestyle community known as “China’s Instagram”, published a post on its platform, which invited users to learn how its app algorithms work and reminded users that they can disable personalised recommendations any time. The company also said it was soliciting public comments on how to polish its algorithms.
The moves come amid a three-month official campaign launched late in November to address “typical issues with algorithms” on online platforms, including filter bubbles, where users are isolated from content that disagrees with their views, and unfair pricing targeting different demographics.

Skincare to Seafood, China’s Trade Hubs Ride the Livestream Wave (Sixth Tone)

Skincare products from Guangzhou, mobile accessories from Shenzhen, hair clips from Yiwu, and home textiles from Nantong — these were among the top-selling goods from China’s industrial hubs in 2024.
Through livestreaming platforms, they are increasingly reaching consumers nationwide, reshaping regional economies. While eastern hubs continue to dominate sales, rapid growth in central and western regions is redrawing the country’s e-commerce map.
That’s according to a report released Tuesday by Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, which has become a key player in China’s e-commerce industry.
In 2024, 15.4 billion orders for 170 million products from China’s industrial hubs were completed on Douyin, a 39% year-on-year increase, according to the report. Of these, 63% were driven by live broadcasts, helping small and medium-sized merchants reach broader markets.
Every day, over 1.5 million merchants from these industrial hubs fulfill orders made through more than 9.8 million livestreamers — a figure that surged 84% from last year.

Touch and Go: Will Alipay’s ‘Tap!’ Gamble Pay Off? (Sixth Tone)

As opposed to having to scan a code, Tap! uses near-field communication (NFC) technology, allowing shoppers to pay at checkouts simply by placing their phone close to a specially installed reader. Such technology is common in many overseas markets, yet attempts in the past to introduce this and other alternative payment options in China — such as face-recognition systems and UnionPay’s QuickPass — have largely been unsuccessful.
Nothing has come close to challenging the dominance of QR codes, which are used for 93% of mobile payments nationwide, according to a 2023 report by the Payment & Clearing Association of China.
To disrupt the status quo, Alipay has embarked on aggressive online and offline promotional campaigns since introducing Tap! in July, providing tech support and subsidies to stores as well as major discounts to consumers.

China rolls out world’s first military-proof 5G that can connect 10,000 army robots (SCMP)

China has unveiled the world’s first mobile 5G base station, which, after passing rigorous tests, is now poised for deployment on the battlefield.
Jointly developed by China Mobile Communications Group and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), it can provide unprecedented high-speed, low-latency and extremely secure and reliable data exchange services to at least 10,000 users within a 3km (1.8 mile) radius.
Even when PLA troops are advancing at 80km/h (50mph) in complex terrains, such as mountains or cities, and are subjected to electromagnetic interference, the system can still maintain an uninterrupted total throughput of 10 gigabits per second and a latency of less than 15 milliseconds.

Magic monkey tale inspires China’s gaming industry to seek blockbuster success (Financial Times)

China’s video-game industry is scaling up to release more blockbusters in 2025 after the breakout global success of “triple-A” title Black Myth: Wukong.
In August, little-known Chinese developer Game Science achieved one of the fastest-selling debuts in gaming history with 10mn copies sold in three days of a title inspired by a classical Chinese novel about an anthropomorphic monkey with supernatural powers.
The action role-playing game has since earned $1.1bn, with nearly 25mn copies sold, according to estimates from gaming consultancy Niko Partners. Around 70 per cent of sales came in China.
The game’s appeal both at home and abroad goes beyond its state of the art graphics, fun gameplay and strong character development, according to one typical fan.
“Hu”, a 29-year-old former tech worker in Beijing, said: “The biggest difference is that this is an authentically Chinese game, incorporating a wealth of historical, cultural and martial arts elements far more genuine than the occasional Chinese flavour found in other games.”
Developers have taken it up a notch to achieve that. The game is China’s first major “AAA” title — an unofficial designation for games with large budgets and lengthy development cycles released for gaming PCs and consoles rather than smartphones.
“Black Myth: Wukong put Chinese developers firmly on the map for triple-A premium games,” said Daniel Ahmad, Niko Partners’ research director.
Industry insiders hope this will rekindle investment in a domestic gaming sector recovering from a regulatory crackdown that began in 2021, when children were banned from playing video games for more than an hour on certain days.

Science, Health & Environment

WHO still waiting on COVID origins data from China (DW)

An appeal from the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday indicated that the UN health agency was still waiting on Beijing to give them data needed to clarify the earliest stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We continue to call on China to share data and access so we can understand the origins of COVID-19," the WHO said in a statement.
"This is a moral and scientific imperative. Without transparency, sharing, and cooperation among countries, the world cannot adequately prevent and prepare for future epidemics and pandemics."
China's Foreign Ministry responded early on Tuesday, saying it had shared information internationally "without holding anything back," thereby making a "huge contribution" to efforts to fight the pandemic.
"Five years ago ... China immediately shared epidemic information and viral gene sequence with the WHO and international community," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
"Without holding anything back, we shared our prevention, control and treatment experience, making a huge contribution to the international community's pandemic-fighting work," she told reporters at a regular press briefing.

HMPV: China's New Virus Outbreak Explained (Newsweek)

Because HMPV is a virus that was recognized relatively recently, there is no specific treatment available for it and no available vaccine.
People with HMPV are advised to treat it like the flu and to stay at home while the body fights off infection.
Currently, there is not enough information from reliable sources on the extent and severity of a possible HMPV outbreak in China to accurately predict the risk of a pandemic.
However, this is a virus that already circulates among populations in China, the U.S. and elsewhere, so there is more herd immunity against it than there would be against a novel virus, such as COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic.

China Health Commission to narrow gaps in mental health services (Reuters)

China's National Health Commission said that it would address gaps in its mental health services from 2025 to 2027 as authorities try to deal with an increasing number of mental health issues, particularly amongst children and adolescents.
China will set up a mental health hotline, establish regional mental health centres throughout the country and "actively develop key clinical specialities" in mental health, the National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement on Tuesday.
The announcement comes as mental health issues have sprung to the forefront in China after several violent incidents in 2024, including a series of stabbing cases and two separate cases of cars ramming into crowds.
Outpatient services for mental and sleep disorders should be available at a minimum of at least one hospital in each prefecture and city nationwide by 2025, the NHC said.
The World Health Organisation estimates 54 million people in China suffer from depression, and about 41 million suffer from anxiety disorders, out of a population of 1.4 billion.

In 2024, China saw warmest year in decades, breaking records yet again (Reuters)

Chinese meteorological data shows 2024 was the warmest year for the country since comparable records began more than six decades ago, the second straight year in which milestones were broken.
The national average temperature stood at 10.92 degrees Celsius (51.66 Fahrenheit) last year, more than 1 degree higher than 2023, according to weather.com.cn, a service portal run by the China Meteorological Administration.
The ten warmest years since records started in 1961 were all in the 21st century, the service portal said.
For densely populated Shanghai, China's financial hub, 2024 was the warmest since the Qing dynasty, data from the Shanghai meteorological bureau showed on Wednesday.
The city's average temperature stood at 18.8 Celsius, the hottest since Shanghai's meteorological records began in 1873.

This Is How China Builds So Much Nuclear Power (Odd Lots)

In the US right now, there is a lot of talk about a so-called "nuclear revival." But it remains to be seen whether we'll see a meaningful uptick in actual power generation, from either new reactors, or old reactors getting a restart. Meanwhile, in China, nuclear construction is full steam ahead. In the last decade, China has built 37 nuclear reactors, and several more are coming down the pipe. So what does it take to build nuclear at scale? On this episode, we speak to David Fishman, a China-based energy analyst at The Lantau Group. He walks us through all the elements of the country's nuclear success, from financing to manufacturing to its domestic power markets. We also discuss what, if any, lessons could be applied elsewhere.

Focusing on China's Carbon Emissions Misses the Forest for the Trees (

David Fishman

)

China DID have more emissions last year than the entire developed world combined. While those emissions very well may have peaked in 2024 (jury’s still on this one until we can do a year-end calculation) they’re unlikely to start declining in a substantial way before 2030 (which is when the Chinese government has officially pledged to peak its emissions). Best-case scenario, as far as I can see it, is a plateau or very modest emissions decline between 2025-2030.
The growth of these emissions in recent years has been moderated considerably by the massive growth in renewable energy. Renewables have allowed China’s energy demand to grow at a high rate each year, while checking fossil-fuel growth to a bare crawl. But crawl upward it does. Most of new power demand met by renewables is not the same as all new power demand met by renewables (something I had hoped would happen in 2024 but now seems unlikely). And of course, even after those emissions peak and begin to decline, China will continue to be the largest individual contributor to global carbon emissions for many years. On a historical cumulative basis, China has already passed the EU-27 and is now second to only the USA.
“Wait!”, a hypothetical (and indignant) commentator exclaims. “That’s hardly fair at all.” Doesn’t China have a much larger population than the USA or the entire European Union combined? Why are we looking at total emissions? Wouldn’t it be much more reasonable to look at emissions per capita? That’s the only way to really tell if China’s consuming more than its fair share?”
“Furthermore…” our indignant commentator continues. “Isn’t China the world’s factory? How many of those emissions are associated with producing goods that are consumed in other countries? Those are other countries’ offshored emissions!”
Our indignant commentator has made reasonable points, and these are indeed two of the most common rebuttals. On a per capita basis, Chinese emissions are less remarkable. They’re about 2x the level in countries like France or the UK, similar to countries like Germany or Japan, and 50-75% lower than in countries like the USA, Australia, or Canada. If each Chinese province was instead a medium-large country, we could say we have around 30 Germanys or Japans – each of them with a reasonable volume of carbon emissions for its size.
And yes, if we did a further adjustment for the emissions that have been offshored to China with the goods consumed elsewhere, the Chinese per capita numbers are even less troubling. Calculation approaches vary, but studies estimate around 10-15% of China’s emissions are consumed elsewhere. On this basis, Carbon Brief estimates China has not yet passed the EU in total historical emissions.

Arts & Culture

Remembering China’s ‘Godfather of Jazz’ (Sixth Tone)

Born in Beijing in 1960, Liu learned Chinese folk music from a young age thanks to his father, who played suona, a traditional Chinese instrument somewhat akin to a trumpet. After following in his father’s footsteps and joining the Beijing Song and Dance Troupe, Liu had a rare chance to tour Europe, where he first fell in love with the saxophone and jazz music more broadly.
Liu was far from alone in exploring the international music scene. The generation of Chinese who grew up in the 1980s was the first in decades to be exposed to music from outside the socialist bloc, and young musicians in Beijing soon formed bands with foreign students or even foreign musicians.
But unlike many of his peers, who embraced the poetry of rock and roll, Liu mostly gravitated toward jazz musicians like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and his favorite, John Coltrane.

China's Best Music of 2024 (

ChinaTalk

&
Jake
)

To close out the year, we got Jake Newby, the author the China music substack Concrete Avalanche, to put together a radio hour introducing China’s best music from the past year. His set includes everything from Afrobeat-influenced Beijing funk to an electronic track crafted in a Tibetan monastery featuring Buddhist chanting.

New Chinese Music: Retro Soul, Futuristic Nomadic Beats, Ambient, and More (RADII)

And with that another year in the Chinese music scene wraps up! December has brought a number of new releases from hardworking veterans of the scene, whether refining what they do best (for example, Shanghai post rockers 21 Grams) or venturing into new territories (see Chinese Football guitarist Wang Bo‘s rambunctious, eclectic pop as 温柔D·BOY, or YEHAIYAHAN’s multiculti electronic project WildRide). But there’s fresh blood too: check out emerging producer 444theGod’s ambient album for Genome 6.66Mbp, a welcome local release by a label that has recently been focusing on international artists

The top 10 Chinese architecture projects of 2024 (Dezeen)

Continuing our review of 2024, Dezeen's China editor Christina Yao rounds up this year's most impressive Chinese architecture, including a one-kilometre-long museum and a conical viewing tower.

Sports

Olympic champion Huang quits China national team (Reuters)

Paris 2024 Olympics mixed doubles champion Huang Yaqiong has quit China's national badminton team due to a growing toll of injuries, the 30-year-old said.
Huang and Zheng Siwei beat South Korea's Kim Won-ho and Jeong Na-eun 21-8 21-11 to win gold at the Olympics in August.

China’s Shang Juncheng retires ill during Hong Kong Tennis Open semi-final, crowd stunned (SCMP)

China’s Jerry Shang Juncheng’s hopes of winning the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open ended prematurely when he retired because of illness during his semi-final against Kei Nishikori of Japan.
Shang lasted just 20 minutes in Saturday’s match at Victoria Park Tennis Stadium before making the decision to withdraw.
As Shang and Nishikori were preparing to swap ends, world No 50 Shang put an arm around his Japanese counterpart, and the pair exchanged words before the umpire announced the 19-year-old’s withdrawal.

China held 671 marathons, road races in 2024 (China Daily)

China held 671 marathons and road running races in 2024 with 6.56 million participants, according to an official figure released on Friday.
Wang Xiaoying, treasurer of the Chinese Athletics Association, said the events covered 31 provincial-level regions, 261 cities, 537 districts and counties.

Li Tie and me (

China Sports Insider

by
Mark Dreyer
)

I’ve been covering Chinese football for the best part of two decades and it feels like this latest episode could have come at literally any time during that period.
As I told Lars Hamer at the South China Morning Post, “we’ve seen this movie too many times before. I don’t for a minute think this case and all of the other related ones will have made any substantial, long-term difference to corruption in the system, and - sadly - I don’t expect things to improve on the pitch, either.”
Whoever thinks that this will mark a turnaround for Chinese football - as the SCMP editorial board appears to do here - needs their head examined. The system is rotten to the core and replacing the individuals will do nothing more than paralyze into inaction those that remain - until the whole cycle repeats again in a few years.

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